Trivia / Hot Bench

• California Doubling: Like on its parent show, the show has New York touches around it (two of the three judges are New Yorkers), but is filmed in Hollywood.
• Cast the Expert: DiMango was on the New York Supreme Court, Corriero is also a former judge, and Acker was an attorney, as is former judge Larry Bakman (who retired from the series to return to his law practice). Likewise, DiMango and Acker's replacements (Rachel Juarez and Yodit Tawolde) have their own backgrounds as a legal analyst and a criminal defense attorney, respectively.
• He Also Did:
  • Bailiff Sonia Montejano was also the bailiff on Judge Joe Brown (another Big Ticket Productions show) from 2006 until its 2013 end.
  • Did the voice of former announcer Rino Romano sound familiar? It should have if you've watched the DIC English dub of Sailor Moon, as the Canadian actor voiced Darien/Tuxedo Mask during the dozen or so episodes.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The idea for the series came about when Judy Sheindlin and her husband Jerry took a trip to Ireland and noticed the country’s three-judge system.
• Recycled Set: Episodes produced during the COVID-19 Pandemic have the litigants shot on the Judge Judy set, but with some Hot Bench set pieces.
• Screwed by the Network: While Hot Bench isn't a network show, its creator, Judge Judy, felt CBS screwed the show by prioritizing Drew Barrymore's talk show over Hot Bench, which got bumped to secondary channels in some markets despite having higher ratings than Barrymore's show. Sheindlin accused CBS of "disrespecting [her] creation" and described her severing her relationship with CBS (to do Judy Justice) as "a Bill and Melinda Gates divorce." Judges DiMango and Acker are followed Sheindlin to Freevee, where they now preside over a new Hot Bench-like court show called Tribunal Justice.